Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/316

 *appearing men in civilian dress are grouped about the tables, drinking little and talking less.

It has been a noisy day, the patron tells a tall man with black eyes and fierce mustachios, who lounges in the doorway and sweeps the street with his keen gaze.

But the tall man heeds not the chatter of the patron; his gaze is fixed curiously upon an approaching soldier, who bears across his shoulder the limp form of a man in the uniform of a Spanish captain. The face of the latter is hidden.

Barker brushes by into the cafe with the body of Ralph Felton, and meets the contemptuous glance of the tall man with a searching look that the latter does not fancy.

"Ho, there, patron! A room and a doctor at once!" orders the detective, and he gives the patron a handful of coin and effectually silences his grumbling protest about making a hospital of the place.

Having deposited his burden above stairs, Barker returns to the drinking-room and astonishes the tall man with the black eyes by tapping him on the shoulder and remarking:

"I think I have met you before."

"The mischief you have!" is the curt rejoinder.

"Now I am sure of it," grins Barker. "Your voice has not changed, but your mustachios do not fit you. Pardon me," he adds, just in season to prevent an outbreak, "I am indebted to you for this slash," indicating the scar across his forehead, "but I do not lay up any hard feelings. I'll call it quits if you will lend some friends of mine a helping hand. I have got my hands full upstairs. Listen." Barker briefly recounts the episodes narrated in the previous chapter.

As the tall man listens his brow grows black as night, and when the tale is finished his voice rings through the cafe in a sharp command:

"Haste, my comrades! To the American consul's to save my friends!"

The quiet-appearing civilians about the tables leap to their feet as one man, and, leaving the unpaid patron